Genesis 8-15

The List (Chapter number: Verse)

8:16 - God orders everyone off the Ark. Another mention of Noah's wife and his sons' wives.
8:18 - Everyone leaves the Ark. Another mention of Noah's wife and his sons' wives.

Chapter 9 - God creates covenant with Noah and his sons. Completely devoid of any women.

Chapter 10 - More genealogy. Again, devoid of any mention of women. Unless there is a daughter's name listed, I am not well versed in Biblical names. If anyone knows a name in this chapter that is a daughters name please let me know so I can add it here.

11:11 - More genealogy. Shem had other sons and daughters.
11:13 - Arpachshad had other sons and daughters.
11:15 - Shelah had other sons and daughters.
11:17 - Eber had other sons and daughters.
11:19 - Peleg had other sons and daughters.
11:21 - Reu had other sons and daughters.
11:23 - Serug had other sons and daughters.
11:25 - Nahor had other sons and daughters.
11:29 - Abram and Nahor took wives, Abram took Sarai and Nahor took Milcah. Sarai was the daughter of Haran and was barren and could not have children.
11:31 - Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot and Sarai, his daughter-in-law (Abram's wife), out of Ur into Canaan. They settled in Haran.

12:5 - Abram takes his wife Sarai and brother's son Lot out of Haran and into Canaan because God commanded him to.
12:11-20 - Abram and Sarai get to Egypt. Abram tells Sarai that since she is beautiful, if the Egyptians know that she is his wife they will kill him and take her from him. He tells her to say she is his sister. Once in Egypt, Pharaoh's officials see Sarai. They mention her to Pharaoh and Pharaoh takes her for his wife and deals well with Abram, her "brother." God punishes Pharaoh for taking Abram's wife and Pharaoh summons Abram and asks him why he has lied to him like this? Pharaoh had taken Sarai because Abram said she was his sister. Pharaoh sent Abram away with his wife and all that Abram had.

13:1 - Abram, Lot and Sarai enter Negrab.

14:16 - Abram defeats the "enemy" (I'm pretty sure this is Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him) that kidnapped Lot. Abram brings back his nephew Lot with his goods, and all the women and the people.

15:9 - Three year old heifer, three year old female goat, three year old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon brought to God as a sacrifice.

My Thoughts

So we finish off the Noah's Ark story and we still get no names for their wives. I guess we will never know their names.

Chapter 9 is completely devoid of any women, not even a casual mention of Noah's wife and his sons' wives. Which is weird to me since God blesses Noah and his sons. Just them specifically. Did the wives not deserve to be blessed? Did they not endure the flood like their husbands? God then establishes a covenant with Noah and sons. Again, no wives included in this. The only way I can think they may have been included was in the "every creature with you" bit of the covenant, since the covenant is with Noah, his sons and their descendants and the wives can not descendants. Maybe God just forgot to mention them, who knows. I just think God could have spoken to all of them at once, not just the men.

Random side note: I'll never understand the Ham story. "How dare you accidentally stumble upon your naked father and see him?! Cursed be you!" Seriously, Noah's the naked drunk, why is Ham punished so harshly? He accidentally sees him and then goes outside to tell his brothers. Maybe there's more to the story? Maybe Ham was laughing about it or commenting on Noah's tiny penis, I don't know. All we know is that accidentally stumbling across your naked father is punishable by a lifetime of slavery for you and your progeny. What a nice father Noah is.

Chapter 10 again has no women. Not even any generic daughters.

Another random side note: And the Tower of Babel thing? Does God just hate it when people learn or are flourishing? First the Tree of Knowledge and now he's basically making everyone ignorant of each other's languages. So, remember kids, God hates smart people.

The Sarai story is interesting in an annoying way. Basically Abram uses his wife as a prostitute, letting Pharaoh have his way with her while he gets all sorts of presents and whatnot. And the God punishes Pharaoh? Seriously, what the hell? Abram is the liar in this scenario, he deserves more punishment than Pharaoh. Abram basically gave his wife away so that he wouldn't be hurt and would get free stuff. So, remember kids, God doesn't care if you use your wife as a means to get stuff.

There's been research on children and their development regarding interpreting people's motives for an action. Basically, when you're little a person's intentions mean nothing. This talk does the idea FAR more justice than I ever could (link). It's 15 minutes but it is SOOOOO good. What if the difference between the God in the Old Testament and the God in the New Testament is that God is a child that grows older? God acts a lot like a small child in the way he makes decisions and doles out punishments and constantly demands attention and stuff. I'll have to keep reading and thinking about this concept, but it's a fascinating idea.

And I think the women as the spoils of war and battle will be a regular theme. I know enough about the Old Testament that this will not surprise me. And women so far have been very passive. Aside from Eve, who was active and then punished for it. I mean really, Sarai was acted upon in that entire chapter, just letting things go about without any input or anything. We can only assume she actually agreed to the whole plan. This I hope is not going to be a constant theme, though I'm sure it will be.

And just as a side note, why is it that God only talks to men? He only makes covenants with men and promises to men and gives land to men and gives commands to men. Maybe there will be a woman that talks to God eventually. Other than the virgin Mary and Eve. Something to keep an eye out for.

Tomorrow: Genesis 16-21